In the same week that international scientists publish clearer evidence of humanity’s influence on climate change, the Australian government is reducing its focus on pollution, the environment and science itself.

Many people may feel that their imagination has diminished since they left the schoolyard and entered the workplace, but new research has found the imagination is still there – manipulating thoughts and memories within its own ‘mental workspace’.

Almost everybody is familiar with the slow roll of waves at the beach, the subject of millions of cliché postcards and holiday snaps, but now scientists have recorded the breaking of waves as tall as skyscrapers - deep beneath the ocean’s surface.

Members of the broad Australian scientific community will be wondering what the future holds this week; with pre-poll comments from the newly-elected federal government clouding the path ahead for many researchers.

Dingoes have most certainly been given a bum rap in Australia but a new study has helped put them on the path to redemption, showing that dingoes are not responsible for the mainland extinction of the thylacine and Tasmanian devil.